This application is based on Japanese Patent Application Serial Nos. 2006-229779, 2006-229780, and 2006-220781, all filed with the Japan Patent Office on Aug. 25, 2006, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a movable floor apparatus for a vehicle, which comprises a movable board disposed beneath feet of an occupant seated in an occupant seat, to cover an upper surface of a vehicle body floor in a liftable and lowerable manner.
2. Description of the Background Art
Heretofore, there has been proposed a movable floor apparatus comprising a movable board (movable floor) disposed in an area located above a vehicle body floor (floor panel) defining a floor surface of a vehicle body and below a foot-operated pedal, such as a brake pedal, and a lifting/lowering drive mechanism (movable-floor adjustment mechanism) based on a double linkage adapted to drivingly lift and lower the movable board relative to the vehicle body floor, as disclosed, for example, in JP 2005-271829A (Patent Publication 1). The movable floor apparatus disclosed in the Patent Publication 1 allows the movable board to be selectively displaced upwardly and downwardly in conformity to a physique of an occupant or the like so as to provide enhanced operability of the foot-operated pedal.
More specifically, in the movable floor apparatus disclosed in the Patent Publication 1, the double linkage-based lifting/lowering drive mechanism is disposed below the movable board (i.e., between the vehicle body floor and the movable board), and driven such that link members thereof are raised up and laid down to displace the movable board upwardly and downwardly. In this arrangement where the lifting/lowering drive mechanism is disposed below the movable board, a lowermost (i.e., initial) height position of the movable board is inevitably set at a relatively high level which is determined by a height dimension of an installation space required for the lifting/lowering drive mechanism. Thus, an occupant with particularly large body size (e.g., a tall occupant) is likely to have difficulty in ensuring a correct seating posture.